


I should have met you then

by issen4



Category: HIStory 3: 圈套 | HIStory 3: Trapped, HIStory3 - 圈套 | HIStory3: Trap
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-18 10:54:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19333111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/issen4/pseuds/issen4
Summary: Li Li Zhen and Tang Guo Dong's last moments. ETA: Slightly edited after I discovered the novel. Li Zhen is badass chill.





	I should have met you then

"Are you sure this is where they're meeting?" Captain Li Li Zhen asked as she and Tang Guo Dong made their way up the hill.

"Positive." Tang Guo Dong turned back to glance at her. "My sources say that the traitor in Xing Tian Meng meets one of your people up here regularly. This is our chance to find out who they are." He hesitated. "You're sure you wouldn't want to call for backup? This could be dangerous."

Li Zhen shook her head. "I don't want to chance alerting the traitor either," she said. She frowned, squinting ahead. "Is that the hut you mentioned?" It was nothing more than a small rest hut for hikers, but it was out of the way, and she could see how it became a secret meeting place.

"Yes, I think so."

Judging by the time Tang Guo Dong mentioned, they were early, all the better for them to find a suitable hiding spot to lie in wait.

"You could have brought along that junior of yours. I'm pretty sure he's not a traitor, and he looks capable enough."

Despite her determination to remain impassive, Li Zhen couldn't help a small smile at Tang Guo Dong's description. "Ah Fei? He's far more than 'capable enough', Old Tang," she said, conscious of a feeling of maternal pride, however misplaced. Although Meng Shao Fei referred to her as Li Zhen Jie, she'd always felt like she was a mother hen guiding along a bright, good-tempered but impulsive chick. "He's already a good cop, and if I've taught him right, he's going to be a pain in Xing Tian Meng's ass."

"Hm, I hope not. I want Xing Tian Meng to stop all its illegal activities, so that the police will never have a reason to come after us."

She nodded Tang Guo Dong towards the back of the hut, trying to assess if it was suitable as a hiding place. "I wish you success," she said blandly, "But I think it'll be a lot more difficult than you think."

Tang Guo Dong didn't look offended at her honesty. Then again, their acquaintance went back decades, back when he'd realised that she was Chen Wen Hao's girlfriend, and he was the one who brought her to see Chen Wen Hao in prison. 

She tried not to remember her lie to Chen Wen Hao, and the way his face had fallen at what she said, as though his life had ended. Li Zhen considered it her one selfish act in the world, to give birth to this child that was a product of the love between herself and Chen Wen Hao, when she knew that she would have to give the child up for adoption. The difficulty of being a single mother was too great at that time, as was the danger that Chen Wen Hao would find out. She did not want her innocent child to grow up in a gang. Or worse, having Chen Wen Hao's enemies find out.

Chen Wen Hao had disappeared soon after he was released from prison; Li Zhen herself never mentioned him to Tang Guo Dong or anyone again. Tang Guo Dong didn't even know that she had the child after all; he believed the same lie that she gave to Chen Wen Hao. They'd politely gone their way as adversaries after that visit to prison, with Li Zhen focused on her job of investigating cases and catching suspects, in a world where Xing Tian Meng was no better than any of the other gangs out there.

A few years ago, Tang Guo Dong had started to clean up some of Xing Tian Meng's operations, starting with cutting down the drug dealing and smuggling, and they'd found themselves exchanging a few bits of intel by phone, including about the secret drug deals out of Xing Tian Meng and leading to this joint attempt to catch the collaborators in the act. It was the first time they had met in person since they visited Chen Wen Hao together.

"How about you," Li Zhen asked, in an attempt to change the topic, "Didn’t you bring some backup as well? Where's that boy I see following you about all the time?"

"You mean Xiao Tang?" Tang Guo Dong smiled. "He drove me here. But I left him at the bottom of the hill, waiting for me. It's safer there. "

Li Zhen was intrigued by Tang Guo Dong's precautions. "You're his actual father, aren't you?" she decided to ask what many people in the station (and on the streets) had been speculating all along. "I heard that he changed his name to Tang, too. You wouldn't have been so protective if he were just one of your followers."

Tang Guo Dong only shook his head. "I would have been over the moon if he really was," he said. "But no. I met him and Hong Ye years ago, and Xiao Tang was the one who decided to take my surname, though he didn't need to. I'd have treated him and Hong Ye like my own anyway."

"I'm surprised that Hong Ye didn't follow her brother and change her surname to Tang, too."

"Hong Ye, that lass, she doesn't talk about her real parents that much, but I gather that she really loved her father when he was still alive. She wouldn't have changed her surname, out of respect for him. Xiao Tang, on the other hand-"

Surprised, Li Zhen blurted, "Wait, her real parents? I thought the two of them were-"

"Blood-related brother and sister?" Tang Guo Dong shook his head. "No. From what Xiao Tang said, he got to know Hong Ye after he had run away from home. She was wondering around on the streets too, and he decided to protect her. I met the two of them soon after."

Li Zhen tried to recall the few times she had seen the boy, though it was always in the distance, via surveillance photos. He'd always seemed familiar to her somehow, but Li Zhen had put it down to her own longing after her own son disappeared from his adopted father's home. That child was always on her mind, because he had disappeared without a trace. All these years, it was incredibly hard to pretend to the outside world that nothing had happened. She'd decided to mentor Shao Fei – and to a lesser extent, Zhao Zi – because Shao Fei would have been about the same age as-

"Old Tang, when exactly did you adopt Tang Yi, anyway?" she asked, trying to keep her voice unconcerned. Too late, she realised she had given herself away by saying 'Tang Yi' rather than 'the two of them'.

Tang Guo Dong looked at her, starting to reply, then his eyes widened at something behind her. 

Before Li Zhen could turn around, there was the bang of a gunshot, then another, and Li Zhen was collapsing to the ground even before she could feel the cold burn of a bullet in her chest. Her last thought was, maybe Tang Yi is my- 

-maybe Tang Yi- 

-maybe-

/end


End file.
